Blue Jays LIVE Game Thread vs Cleveland Indians

Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

Welcome to tonight’s Blue Jays LIVE Game Thread vs the Cleveland Indians (18-20).

The Blue Jays (19-20) look to shake off a fairly disappointing series against the Angels that saw them drop 3 of 4. It should be a good one tonight. R. A. Dickey (3-3, 4.72) takes the mound against Justin Masterson (2-1, 3.86).

Radio– SN590 The Fan
TV– SNET

The Blue Jays will be in tough against Masterson. Historically, they’ve not had much success against him. Masterson is 4-1 with an ERA of 2.79 against the Jays. The Blue Jays sluggers, though have had some good times against him. Jose Bautista is hitting .353 with 2 HR and 5 RBI. Melky Cabrera has seen Masterson the most (20 at bats) and holds a .450 avg. Adam Lind also has seen him 20 times, but is hitting just .300. Did I just say “just” .300?

The Blue Jays will counter with their “ace”, R.A. Dickey. The knuckleball neophyte has been turning his season around.  Over his last 3 starts, he is 2-0 with a 2.89 ERA. He is 2-2 against the Indians over all. Of note are the players who would have seen him in the National League: Michael Bourn has faced him 35 times and collected just 4 RBI, Nyjer Morgan has faced Dickey 14 times and is hitting just .071. Asdrubal Cabrera 2 HR and 4 RBI in just 6 at bats against Dickey.

Cleveland Indians lineup: (MLB.com)

Michael Bourn-CF
Nick Swisher-1B
Michael Brantley-LF
Carlos Santana-C
Asdrubal Cabrera-SS
David Murphy-RF
Yan Gomes-C
Lonnie Chisenhall-DH
Mike Aviles-2B

Toronto Blue Jays lineup: (MLB.com)

Jose Reyes-SS
Melky Cabrera-LF
Jose Bautista-RF
Adam Lind-DH
Edwin Encarnacion-1B
Juan Francisco-3B
Brett Lawrie-2B
Josh Thole-C
Kevin Pillar-CF

What Fans Should Watch For:

-This might be the lineup that everyone was going on and on and on and on about when they discussed Lawrie moving to 2B. With Lind, EE, J-Frank, and Lawrie all able to produce with the bats, we might be seeing Lawrie play 2B a lot more often. Although, if J-Frank stumbles, it’ll be a short experiment.

–Freshly called up Kevin Pillar gets thrown right into CF to give Rasmus time to wait to see how his hamstrings progress. Putting him in CF surprised me a bit…until I checked out what our good friends at BaseballReference.com had to say about his experience there. Apparently, he’s amassed 140 total games for his career in CF. Nevermind. Carry on.

– Jose Reyes is starting to turn things on. His average is climbing. He’s collecting stolen bases (5). It is so much fun to watch him play the game. It is even more fun when he is contributing and kickstarting the offense.

*All info on tonight’s starters via MLB.com

Feel free to jump in to the discussion with your own ideas, opinions and comments below.